NSW leaders go toe to toe on schools, tolls in fresh election debate
The Premier and the man who wants his job are facing off again in another leaders’ debate, with the first blows traded over NSW’s education system and roads.
State Election
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Premier Dominic Perrottet and Opposition Leader Chris Minns have gone head to head in their latest leaders’ debate.
After an early interruption from a fire drill, both leaders were grilled by Channel 7’s state political reporter Amelia Brace.
While both leaders have promised to cut the ballooning bill of bureaucratic fat cats — Mr Perrottet promised the size of his cabinet will not increase if his government is re-elected on March 25.
“There will certainly not be an increase in relation to the cabinet after the election,” he said.
Mr Minns took a swipe at months of infighting within the Liberal party and his cabinet.
“The government’s team, not the premier who I’ve got a lot of regard for, can’t stand to be in the same room with each other and this election campaign has been beset by infighting virtually every single week,” he said.
Mr Perrottet hit back, calling out Labor for having a team with virtually no previous ministerial experience.
The leaders were then quizzed on why they choose to send their children to non government schools while lauding the state’s public schools.
Mr Perrottet said that public schools were excellent but he believed in parental choice while Mr Minns said he has chosen to give his children a religious education before diving into an attack on slipping education standards.
“We need to turn education around. We will convert 10,000 teachers from temporary to permanent positions will abolish the wages cap to get a good agreement with those we need to educate our kids. And we’ll slash five hours of admin work every week for the teachers that educate our children,” Mr Minns said.
His opponent pushed his opponent policy for reforming the education sector with an extra year of free public schools.
“The same old thing, the same old way is not going to improve those standards. We have a very strong education system here in New South Wales, but we are doing things differently,” Mr Perrottet said.
“(We are) providing every child in New South Wales with free preschool that is going to be an absolute game changer …. We’re making 15,000 teachers permanent.”
The debate quickly descended to the same narrative that has run through the election campaign so far: the government positioning itself as the bold infrastructure-focused option while the opposition pushes back as the financially prudent alternative that will cut debt and waste.
Mr Perrottet continued to defend his government’s privatisation of toll roads to keep the state “moving forward” while attacking Labor for its record of opposing some of the state’s key motorways.
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